


The Cure for All Evils

by TeamGwenee



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst and Fluff, Celebrity AU, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt and comfort, Modern AU, online bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:28:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22834069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamGwenee/pseuds/TeamGwenee
Summary: When not everyone is thrilled with the developing relationship between co-stars Jaime Lannister and Brienne Tarth, Brienne receives the brunt of the online ire. Fortunately, Jaime has a novel way to take her mind off her problems.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 19
Kudos: 144





	The Cure for All Evils

It was the run up to the final season. 

Things in the fandom were...intense. Warring fans and rival shippers had reached an all time level of toxic, and the discourse surrounding notorious Nymeria/Arthur/Jonquil love triangle was on the verge of starting a new Dance of Dragons. 

As it does, fiction began to bleed in reality

Brienne and Jaime had only been official since the last Iron Throne Awards, when they walked the red carpet together, although there had been speculation long before that. Ever since their first comic con together, when Jaime relayed the story of how they had once gotten lost in the woods during filming and they came across a wild bear. 

Jaime knew that the pics being leaked to the press made Brienne feel uncomfortable, and he wished that for the second time in his life the woman he loved didn’t want to hide their relationship from the world. It was worse than with Cersei. With Cersei, Jaime had to accept there was no reasonable way of going public without a shitload of censure. (You know, being twins and all.) But with Brienne, there was no bloody reason why Brienne should be made to feel so embarrassed about being seen with him. But certain  _ people  _ managed to achieve it nonetheless.

Jaime knew he shouldn’t have looked at Brienne’s laptop, but her distress was more than he could bear to see and it wasn’t like he had to use her password or anything. She had left in such a state that she hadn’t even shut down the twitter page. 

  
  


_ @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight Jaime, if you need help, blink twice. _

_ Poor Jaime. And poor Sansa. Imagine having to see the (obvs staged) pap pics in every paper. @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight _

_ Wonder what she has on him. What dirt can be worse than having to put up with THAT monstrosity? @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight _

_ @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight We don’t blame you Jaime!!! _

_ @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight Hope you and Sansa can escape soon and be happy. Whoever is keeping you apart; the press, the production company, that Tarth BITCH _

_ Be strong SanJai believers. Things are hard now but NOTHING can stand in the way of TRUE LOVE!!!!! @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight _

_ @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight I don’t hate Brienne. I don’t think she’s the perfect innocent angel her stans insist she is, but she obviously needs a lot of help and I hope she can get it, and get it far far away from Jaime as much as possible. _

_ Don’t hate Brienne either, but her stans are the worst. @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight _

_ @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight I just hate Brienne.  _

_ Genuine question Brienne. Why do you hate true love so much? Why can’t you just let Jaime and Sansa be happy? @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight _

_ @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight Look. Look! They are barely even paying attention to each other. _

Jaime gritted his teeth. The reason Brienne always looked so uncomfortable with him in public was because of the bullshit that was being written about them online. It was a vicious cycle in which one state of affairs brutally goaded on the other. 

_ Compare these two walking down the streets to that beautiful SanJai photoshoot we were blessed with. Now THERE was chemistry. @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight @LemonCakesforLegends _

_ If tarth wants to be even the slightest bit credible, she needs to get those teeth fixed like yesterday. @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight _

Scrolling back Jaime found that these messages went back weeks. Months even. Especially whenever there were new pics leaked of the pair. 

Jaime knew the public could be nasty. How could he not after all these years in the spotlight, and he knew that there were people ‘shipping’ him with Jonquil’s actress, and that Brienne had to put up with some with pretty gruesome dungeon trolls.

But knowing and seeing were two very different things.

Jaime didn’t have twitter. He was established enough and had enough credit in the business to forgo social media. By the time twitter was a major thing and social media presences were a must for celebrities, Jaime had been an international star for fifteen years and happily avoided the festering trash pit of the internet.

Brienne; on the other hand, was an up and comer and ‘The Dragon’s Blade’ was her first major role. Both her PR and the production company insisted she keep a twitter and instagram account to keep a high profile, even when she found the carefully managed and staged show photoshoots taxing enough. 

_ @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight I just don’t understand WHY! Why does he put up with her? Whose forcing his hand? _

_ @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight Don’t see what he gets out of it. What she gets is obvious, who in King’s Landing gives a shit about her? _

_ I no right? Not like he gets anything from it. Who was she before they started ‘dating’? Just some unknown who will fade into obscurity once the show’s done. @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight _

__

_ I’m frightened guys. What if the production is pushing them together because they want to sell (bleurgh) Nymeria/Arthur? @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight _

_ NO! If Jonquil and Arthur aren’t endgame, why did they both read letters by the fire last season? @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight _

_ @BlueEvenStar @CasterlyKnight If the ship that must not be named goes canon next series, it’s because SHE’s forcing it. She’s pulling all the strings, i tell you. She may be an idiot, but she’s a text book narcissist and and they have low cunning and ruthlessness _

A wave of masochism sent Jaime down the same path Brienne’s own feet had left a trail of purple links. Gossip boards, blind items, even fanfiction. Too many had been clicked on, all painting Brienne as a crazed, desperate stalker, a pathetic and clueless fool, or a helpless doormat. 

Jaime ground his teeth. Brienne had been subdued for weeks now. How long had she been digging, burying herself in a pit of self-loathing? How much vile had she been reading about herself? He wondered if in some twisted way, Brienne was beginning to agree. He knew how easy it was to be carried away by an avalanche of hate. Even if all the facts and details were wrong and you knew they were talking bullshit, some part of you insisted there must be a basis for the vitriol. The causes changed and shifted, but the loathing remained.

Jaime stared at the list of fics, all the links purple. At the tags and descriptions and summaries. He sat there, thinking. If these were cause for so much of Brienne’s distress, perhaps they could provide an answer as well.

#

Brienne knew there was a chance that Jaime had read the comments. Had read the hate. She had worried how he would react. Would he leap to her defense, cause some great media storm to defend her honour? As much as she shuddered at the prospect of the nuclear fallout, some part of her longed for such a defense. She ran through multiple options, all varying in likelihood and credibility. What she was not expecting, was for Jaime to come in, grab her wrist, and insist they get coffee there and then. 

Which, ok. Maybe he thought a doughnut would bring some consolation. And he wasn’t wrong. And then he said they were going on a minibreak. In a rush they grabbed what they needed for a weekend and then Jaime; determined it all be an adventure, drove them into the night without a word nor notion of where they were going.

This sudden rush of activity had certainly taken the edge of Brienne’s despondency, and she found herself once more appreciating the sweet madness and maddening sweetness of her boyfriend. 

They drove into the night, Brienne occasionally nodding off. When she awoke around midnight, she insisted that Jaime pull in at the first stop they found. He pulled into a driveway of a cheap hotel with an empty car park, and insisted on booking them in. As they stood in the doorway of their room, Brienne’s reasoning that Jaime was just trying to take her mind off her troubles with some spontaneity began to hold less water.

“I’m afraid they only had a room with one bed,” Jaime informed her regretfully.

Brienne raised her eyebrow, torn between asking why that was a problem and how that could be true when the hotel was half full. Jaime saw her confusion and lowered his voice conspiratorially.

“We’re not together. We’re barely even friends. We always argue and yet fate keeps pushing us together. One cold night we are both stranded far from home. We go to a hotel that only has one room, and neither of us have brought any pyjamas. In an uncharacteristic display of gallantry I lend you my shirt, while you blush as I parade in my boxers. The room is freezing, and we secretly want to huddle for warmth. Which we cannot avoid as tragically, there is only one bed.”

Brienne finally caught on. “Jaime, are you…?”

“And tomorrow, we are going to Tyrion and Margaery’s for lunch, where we have to pretend we are dating.”

“But we are dating.”

“I know, but we are pretending to pretend to be dating. Our backstory is that they keep trying to set us up with people. Margaery tried to foist that ginger bearfucker guy from lighting on you, and Tyrion is just throwing one desperate ‘model’ my way one after the other. Of course, we worried they won’t believe us, so I overcompensate and spend the entire meal with my hands all over you.”

Brienne laughed. “Jaime, how many tropes are you going to try and squeeze in?”

Jaime stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, burying his nose in her shoulder. “Oh, the list is endless Wench. This is just-small fry. I’ve got to try and convince our parents to arrange a marriage between us, whilst maintaining I cannot stand you. Then I’ve got to hire some actors and a manor house, so I can court you as a proper Regency lady deserves to be courted, after some misunderstandings of course. And then I am going to forge us some fake police ID badges and steal a cop car, because what’s life without a buddy cop to romance thrown in-”

“Jaime!” Brienne laughed into his hair. “You’re overdoing it.”

Jaime tightened his grip on her. “You deserve a million love stories Brienne,” he breathed. “And I am determined to be in all of them.” He smiled. “We can get going on one of them right away, which I am particularly excited about. I believe it’s called; if I am not mistaken, shower sex?” 


End file.
